Js Producers Update 08/19/2016

It has been quite some time since I have taken the time to talk about Just Survive and where we are headed with it. I realize there will be some vagaries below in terms of details, but that is not because I am trying to be secretive and more due to us going through a lot of discussing/planning to get things lined up.

Letâs start by talking about the short term. When I reference the short term, I am talking about the next 2 months or so and our focus is on cleanup and bug fixing. Weâve seen your feedback on things like the zombie resurrection and dying in bases and other recent bugs and want to get those fixed up. Other changes are being revisited as we look at the feedback and reaction to recent changes to see if those still hold up. We also are examining any positive changes that we did not bring over from King of the Kill such as the ability to flip vehicles over. From a new feature perspective, we have some cool functionality which will add goals to the game by giving a score for how well you are surviving in the environment. This score will accumulate over a set period of time before the server is wiped (including the scores) and then it starts all over again. Youâll be able to compare with others and see if you can best your previous score. This is well in progress internally, but we need to spend some time playtesting and tuning it before it is ready to go out to all of you. Once we get closer I will provide a lot more detailed info on how the scoring works, the trade-offs, and decisions that you will need to make as a player.

That takes us into longer term planning and what our thinking is in terms of focus for at least the foreseeable future. This work is beginning now, but they are some large endeavors and will take some time to implement, tune, test, and deploy. This is why they end up in the longer term bucket. We are getting back to the core of the experience; re-examining and re-balancing all of those elements of the game. From melee, wildlife, zombie AI, base building, recipe balance, body sim, all of it.

Bullet conversion is also back on the table and we are going to look for your feedback to help decide how you would want it re implemented if at all. We are committed to raising the quality getting it to a place that we are proud of by making it distinct and enjoyable. Itâll get back to some of what I talked about when I first joined the team. I want the experience to be challenging and really drive towards making you feel the tension of having to survive in a brutal world. Along the way as we group this work together for updates, we will be sure to talk about the details and timelines. Your takeaway should be essentially no corner of the game is going un-examined.

Special note on Z2. We are still wrapping Z2 up to be ready for King of the Kill, bug free and fully optimized. Once we hit that milestone, we need to do some work to prepare it for Just Survive. It is hard to give you a timeline until we really dive into the work, but as soon as we have an idea of when that lines up, I will be sure to talk about it and our plans to start getting the new map into Just Survive.

Our team lost a few great team members this week. This is normal in game development, as they had a great new opportunity to explore that really spoke to them. I know they will do great there, as I know we will fill in and continue to drive forward with where we ultimately see the game going.

More than anything, I am really excited. The discussions and plans that we have been putting down are really going to result in a great experience. As usual, we have more ideas than we can possibly handle, but we are getting the priorities straight and I am really optimistic over where the game is going to go.